Romesco Sauce Recipes
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Earlier, when talking about the Catalan tradition of calçots and the calçotada, I did mention that you need a really good romesco sauce to go with them.
Well I’ve tried a few different recipes out and this wins hands down:
Winning (Cheats) Recipe for Romesco Sauce
- 3 mild dried chillies (I used these home grown dried numex big jim peppers)
Dry chillis & peppers in the kitchen awaiting cooking
- 1 hot dried chilli (I used a home grown, dried serrano chilli)
- 25g almonds
- 150ml olive oil
- 1 slice stale bread (no crusts)
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped
- 3 tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 120ml wine vinegar (red or white)
- salt & ground black pepper
Firstly slit the chillies and remove the seeds, soak in warm water for 30 mins, then pat dry and chop finely. While the chillies are expanding, toast the almonds in a dry frying pan till golden. Now fry your bread slice in some of the olive oil, when its done fry the garlic too. Now put everything (except seasoning, vinegar and oil) in a food processor / blender / pestle and mortar and blend into a smooth paste. Continue mixing as you add the olive oil followed by the vinegar. The sauce will be pretty smooth but I like to leave a hint of nutty crunchiness so I don’t blend for as long as you might like to. Finally season with salt and pepper.
Leave the sauce covered in clingfilm/wrap in the fridge for 2 hours or so for the flavours to mingle.
This sauce is great cold or at room temperature to accompany calcots or other veggies (raw or grilled) as a dip. However a few days ago we discovered that it makes an exceptional accompaniment to grilled meats when gently heated before serving.
Traditional Romesco Sauce Recipe
That was my favorite recipe, not least because it gave me a chance to use some of this year’s dried peppers and chillies. The other plus point is that there was no pepper or tomato peeling to be done. I love cooking but some things I loath – peeling peppers is one of them.
If however you’re more authentic you may want to try the more traditional method. Basically follow the steps above but use fresh chilli peppers. Roast / grill the peppers before peeling and chopping them. Also you should really peel and de-seed the tomatoes (immerse in boiling water for 30 seconds to loosen the skin). I would rather get all the goodness I can from the ingredients so don’t bother with the peeling and de-seeding – heck it all gets blended anyway and I like a bit of texture in my food.
For more easy to follow Spanish recipes Pepita Aris’s book ‘Spanish’
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Mmmmm that Sauce sounds yum!
Will give this a try for sure – thanks for the recipe!
HUmmmmmm, it saounds delicious, I am definately going to try it out. It will be a great chance to use up the pepers from my garden this summer. Thanks for sharing this recipe with us.
It seems reaaly good. I just have a problem, I get upset stomach every time I eat receipes including chili. That is a boomer! the flavor is not the same without it.
This sounds really good. I love spicy sauces. Thanks for the recipe!
This sounds nice and to be honest I needed a recipe i could use stale bread in as it is all I’m able o get at my local más y más store!
In fact bring on more stale bread recipes, a Spanish twist on bread and butter pudding would be nice!
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[...] should be eaten dipped into a nutty, spicy, tart sauce such as romesco or salvitxada sauce. You’ll need lots of good crusty fresh bread to soak up the juices. [...]
Yay, another way to use tomatoes! Gonna try your recipe CG, cos here in summer in NZ we are over-run with tommies, and something other than chutney, relish, pasta sauce and sun(oven)dried tomatoes is warmly welcomed and will be a break from the norm! Loving your sight and all the tips you give – and um, can we come for dinner?!!
Sootie, feel free to fly over for dinner any time! Have you tried bottling your excess toms? Great as it saves money all year long as you don’t need to buy tinned ones. I’m lazy and don’t even skin many of mine – just whizz in a blender for passata-esque canned tomatoes.
[...] made a quick romesco sauce using leftover garlic bread from last night (how frugal am I?). We grilled the lightly oiled [...]
[...] Serve with Romesco Sauce. [...]